Friday, October 28, 2005

Camera Obscura - Reel Scary Movies


Last week, I offered you a chance to vote on some your favorite horror movies as we take our daily steps towards Halloween. Many responded and you can read that post and their comments here.

Some good suggestions, without a doubt.

I also offered a TRUE or FALSE question for you -- More horror movies are made in the U.S. when a Republican is president. It isn't a partisan thing, it's just been sort of an ongoing debate my brother David and I have had for years. By going back and checking with dates and presidents, the Republicans win hands down. Here is a brief list
to illustrate my point (for instance, I did not include the first President Bush, mainly to save space and some movies, especially in the 1950s are also science-fiction fear films, and I only listed movies most folks would know or recognize).

Horror Classics and Presidents

Herbert Hoover 1928-1932
Dracula
Frankenstein
The Mummy
Freaks

Dwight Eisenhower 1952-1961
Pyscho
The Thing
Them
Earth Vs The Flying Saucers
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Day the Earth Stood Still
House On Haunted Hill
Macabre
13 Ghosts
Black Sabbath
Black Sunday
Roger Corman's Poe movies (1960)
Little Shop of Horrors
Bucket of Blood and on and on
from HAMMER STUDIOS -
Frankenstein and Dracula features

The arrival on TV of Twilight Zone
The arrival on TV of Outer Limits

Richard Nixon 1968-1974
Night of the Living Dead
Rosemary's Baby
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Exorcist
Willard

Gerald Ford 1974-1977
Jaws
The Hills Have Eyes
Suspiria
Rabid
The Omen

Ronald Reagan 1981-1989
Scanners
Videodrome
The Fly (remake)
The Thing (remake)
Poltergeist
Freddy Krueger movies
The Shining
Friday the 13th movies
Halloween sequels
Hellraiser
Re-Animator
Day of the Dead


G.W. Bush 2000-2008
The Ring
The Grudge
Land of the Dead
House of 1,000 Corpses
Queen of the Damned
Resident Evil
28 Days Later
Jeepers Creepers
Dawn of the Dead (remake)

Starting this Friday on the Showtime Cable Network, they are offering some of the best of the horror genre's writers and directors a chance to scare you good in one-hour specials. The first airs tonite,"Incident On and Off A Mountain Road," written by a real master of horror, Joe Lansdale, and directed by the creator of "Phantasm" and "Bubba Ho-Tep" (which Lansdale also wrote).

You can find a full rundown of the movies and the air-dates at thee
"Masters of Horror" official site. Future episodes include directors Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Joe Dante, John Landis, Takashi Miike, Mick Garris and a host of fine writers like Lansdale and David Schow.

4 comments:

  1. I loved "Bubba Ho-Tep" which you had suggested we see.

    Y'all listen to Joe, he is in the know on these matters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:35 PM

    Bubba Ho-Tep - old Elvis, an old African-American J.F.K, & a cowboy mummy......what's not to love?!?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thankee Jed, you are right. I only claim a few areas of prodigious knowledge and experience and one of those areas is clearly the world o' movies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joe,
    I think a Morristown guy and horror film buff would be remiss in not providing a little history of the filming of Evil Dead, just in time for Halloween. ;)

    ReplyDelete